STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Joe Paterno looked stunned after his Penn State team routed Nebraska 40-7.
\n\u201cI thought we had a good chance to win this game,\u201d Paterno said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would be like this.\u201d
\nNot many people did.
\nAfter back-to-back losing seasons \u2014 the first in Paterno\u2019s 52-year tenure with the Nittany Lions \u2014 Penn State (2-0) dismantled the Cornhuskers (3-1) Saturday night, picking off three passes from Jammal Lord and moving the ball almost at will in the second half.
\nThe win moved Penn State back into the AP Top 25 at No. 15. Nebraska dropped from No. 8 to No. 18.
\n\u201cPenn State offensively totally controlled the game, and defensively Penn State got stronger during the game,\u201d Nebraska coach Frank Solich said. \u201cThey played with great emotion and I certainly wasn\u2019t happy with our composure.\u201d
\nIt was quite a turnaround from the past two seasons for the Nittany Lions, who went 10-13 in that span. Penn State hadn\u2019t had consecutive losing seasons since 1930-32.
\nAfter beating a Top Ten team for the first time since 1999, the Nittany Lions have their highest ranking since ending that season at No. 11.
\n\u201cPeople were saying we couldn\u2019t do this, we couldn\u2019t do that,\u201d running back Larry Johnson said. \u201cNow we are back. We have that swagger back. We like to prove people wrong.\u201d
\nAfter a home game against Louisiana Tech on Saturday, Penn State begins its Big Ten schedule the next week against Iowa.
\nImportant conference games at No. 22 Wisconsin and No. 14 Michigan follow.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been saying all week that this was a statement game, this was going to put Penn State back where it\u2019s supposed to be,\u201d quarterback Zack Mills said. \u201cHopefully, we\u2019re on our way to doing that.\u201d
\nNebraska, meanwhile, must regroup. After a week off, the Cornhuskers have a difficult Big 12 opener at No. 21 Iowa State.
\nNebraska will need a much steadier performance from Lord, who struggled mightily in his first road start. His three interceptions were the most for a Nebraska quarterback since 1990.
\n\u201cI thought I played terrible and now it\u2019s back to square one,\u201d Lord said. \u201cMy kudos to Penn State. They had a great scheme, and it worked to perfection.\u201d
\nPenn State\u2019s game plan and execution approached perfection. In the first half, they opened up the field, with Mills completing 15 passes to five receivers, including five to Bryant Johnson.
\n\u201cThe plan was to use a lot of crossing routes against their man-to-man defense, and it worked,\u201d Mills said. \u201cWe knew we were going to get BJ the ball in those situations.\u201d
\nIn the second half, Penn State went back to the run, getting a pair of touchdown runs on end-arounds from backup quarterback Michael Robinson.
\nLarry Johnson had 86 of his 123 rushing yards and one of his two touchdowns in the second half. His 2-yard sweep around the right was the game\u2019s final score.
\nThe Nittany Lions also contained Nebraska\u2019s option attack, allowing only touchdown on Judd Davies\u2019 2-yard run in the second quarter. Lord\u2019s 111 rushing yards were a personal best, but I-back Dahrran Diedrick had just 71 yards on 16 carries.
\n\u201cWe got whupped,\u201d Diedrick said. \u201cThere\u2019s not much good I can say about what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Joe Paterno looked stunned after his Penn State team routed Nebraska 40-7. \u201cI thought we had a good chance to win this game,\u201d Paterno said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would be like this.\u201d Not many people did. After back-to-back losing seasons \u2014 the first in Paterno\u2019s 52-year tenure with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}